dialogues concerning race, colonialism and the dominance of the West infuse certain works. In the Untitled (From an Ethnographic Museum) series, images of traditional African masks and sculpture become flesh, become fashion, become cinematic and performative, and the connotations that these objects bring – of religious and cultural significance – become part of a dialogue concerning institutionalisation and involve flippant sampling. The spectre of the ‘Ethnographic Museum’ evoked by the series can be seen as a metaphor for the rewriting and favourable editing of history and cultural significance, as well as the objectification of women and the ‘other’, a recurring theme in her work.
The political and cultural landscape of the interwar period imbued her work with an urgency and specificity which has long maintained the sense that it is a statement of intent, a comment. There is a joyful anarchy that feels like it can be broken down and analysed, it feels like it can be ‘interpreted’. The racial cues, the gender inversions and the unhinging of patriarchal prejudice feel like propositions of rebellion delicately crafted and intricately snipped into place. Yet the standard set by this perception means that Höch’s later work (of which a great deal is on show here) can lack some of that purpose and, as such, has been often overlooked.